Wooden Bats?

[FBEmeritus]

I wish all programs from Peewee to College would dump any type of metal bat. I have seen quite a few programs ditch the bats because I think they are juiced up and are dangerous at say LL 42' and HS 60' mound distances. The metal bat lobby industry has spent big cash, and will continue to do so, to make the facts of these dangerous tools obligatory to the general public. If my kid got injured by a metal bat, I would file a suit to prove my theory. Sorry guys but metal bats are a pet peeves of mine and they, like Bonds’ use of drugs have distorted the great game of baseball.

 

Below is just some of the facts I have reviewed to form my opinion.

 

Metal baseball bats outperformed wooden bats in Brown study

 

Metal bats consistently outperformed wooden bats in an analysis of 502 hits off 19 baseball players at the professional minor league, collegiate, and high school level. Researchers attributed the metal bats’ greater batted ball speeds to faster swings and greater elastic performance.

 

 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Metal baseball bats can significantly outperform wooden bats according to a recent study by a group of Brown University bioengineers, confirming a belief widely held by players and coaches.

 

The average speed of a hit off the fastest bat, a metal model, was 93.3 mph; the average off the slowest bat, a wooden model, was 86.1 mph. Only 2 percent of hits made with wooden bats exceeded 100 mph, while 37 percent of the hits with the fastest metal bat more than 100 mph, according to Joseph J. Crisco, associate professor of Orthopaedics at the Brown Medical School. However, researchers also found one metal bat performed similarly to wooden bats.

 

The findings were published in the October 2002 issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Although there is a general consensus that metal bats outperform wooden bats, few scientific studies have documented performance differences.

[LCborn]

I wish someone would set performance standards for metal bats and test them to the standard, as is done for golf equipment. There is absolutely no reason why a baseball version of the golf "Iron Mike" couldn't be developed.

 

I can see the advantage of metal bats to baseball programs in terms of durability and consistency but something needs to be done to make them less dangerous. The technology is way ahead of the ability of players to cope with ball speed coming off of the bat. I'm afraid it will take a couple of deaths at the college or high school level before anything is done--even then, it will probably need some huge awards in law suits against the bat manufacturers to "get r done." I don't think that the restrictions on weight with regard to length are nearly enough.

[Gerry Bertier]

Playing third base in college, I have lasers hit at me all the time. Sometimes I am defenseless out there in the field. I think everyone should use wooden bats. Price is not the problem because you can buy 5 or 6 good wooden bats for the price of one aluminum. Plus if wooden bats became the standard then prices on them would go down and be a little cheaper. In games this year I have seen three of my team's pitchers and four of the other teams get hit by a line drive and couldn't get out of the way. It will take someone dying for these money hungry bat execs to learn life is more precious than money will ever be,

[Superman2362]

I think the metal bats are a lot like the metal cleats. There are a lot of people that say that they should take metal cleats off the market and make players wear only rubber cleats because of people were getting injured. But a few injuries are gonna happen. With the cleats, and with the bats. Thats just part of it. You wouldnt make the balls softer if a lot of people were getting pegged and hurt. I like using wood. But the difference is just too great. We should stick to the metal. The most they should do is stricken the regulations.

[LCborn]

I think the metal bats are a lot like the metal cleats. There are a lot of people that say that they should take metal cleats off the market and make players wear only rubber cleats because of people were getting injured. But a few injuries are gonna happen. With the cleats, and with the bats. Thats just part of it. You wouldnt make the balls softer if a lot of people were getting pegged and hurt. I like using wood. But the difference is just too great. We should stick to the metal. The most they should do is stricken the regulations.

I don't buy that argument. I think there is a world of difference between getting cleated in the shin covering second and taking a line drive off of your bean while pitching or playing third.

 

We're not talking about a kid getting cut by a metal cleat, we're talking about someone getting killed. I can call the cleating an acceptable risk but not the serious injuries from a problem that has a simple technological solution.

 

I've got no problem sticking with metal if the bats are engineered to have the same response as a wooden bat. That would not, not, not (I repeat, not) be a difficult thing to do if the manufacturers wanted to do it.

 

"The difference is just too great"? Exactly. Also, what's the real difference between a $300 bat and a $100 bat? If it's as big as the price difference, how many teams are buying wins with superior technology and inferior ability? And how does that help baseball?

 

I strongly believe that nothing meaningful will be done until some university and a bat manufacturer have to pay some poor guy's family several million dollars in a lawsuit--and I feel just as strongly that such a sad event is bound to happen. I'm only surprised that it hasn't already.

[FBEmeritus]

I don't think metal on the bottom of your shoes compaires. Agree a few class action law suits after someone loses their kid is what will fix the problem. Sad, Know what I mean, Vern?

[LCborn]

I don't think metal on the bottom of your shoes compaires. Agree a few class action law suits after someone loses their kid is what will fix the problem. Sad, Know what I mean, Vern?

Very, very sad. Everyone knows that there is a problem and yet no one will fix it before some tragedy occurs. I don't know what the legal definition of negligence is, but it's gotta be something close to the current state of affairs. I know what ya mean, Vern.

[ksgovols]

I think you guys are on the right path. The -3 drop at middle school and up is not a coincidence. Even slow pitch softball leagues are developing standards for thin walled metal bats. Bat speed generates only a portion of the energy from a batted ball. Rebound effects also have to be considered. The scientific community will end this argument once some poor pitcher is killed by a line drive.

[LCborn]

I think one of he sad parts is that the science and engineering are already there; it's the business community that's preventing real action from taking place. They won't be moved until the legal community gets involved.

[zorroschild]

Is there any "safe" way I could cork his bat or some other way enhance it so that he could be on a level playing field with some of the bigger kids? What is "boneing" a bat mean? I read about it in one of my Baseball America magazines. Will this help him?

[LCborn]

"Boning" means rubbing the bat with a dry bone--like a soup bone. It is supposed to harden the surface of the bat.

 

Don't worry about the bigger kids. Just teach your boy to hit line drives. A lot of those bigger kids are successful only because they are ahead maturationally. Many will drop by the wayside as the other kids catch up in growth. Teach good fundamentals and don't sweat the size thing. Don't emphasize his performance today: emphasize increasing his skills as a player and assure him that if he's got the talent and the determination, he'll not only catch up but surpass many of them--maybe even all of them.

 

My kid played Little League from 6 to 12 and never hit a home run, which bothered him. I kept telling him, hit liners and eventually you'll outgrow the parks. At 14 that happened and he went on to have a good high school career, with power not being a problem at all.

 

So pat him on the head to show you love him, pat him on the back to reassure him, and pat him on the butt to get him working on those fundamentals. If you want him to have a competitive advantage, make it be what you teach him and not what you do to his bat.

[ksgovols]

I'll echo those remarks zorroschild. The performance of the bat isn't going to help him down the road. Get him fundamentally sound and don't make winning the biggest priority in the early stages. I've told dozens of parents that the road to a high school baseball career is a long one and there are no shortcuts. If you burn 'em out at 7 and 8, they'll never make it to the 90' bases, much less the high school team. A successful youth league coach is one who's players return the next season, not necessarily the one winning the championships. My oldest son is 12 and is in his 8th year of organized youth baseball. Just like LCborn said, as he's matured and grown taller, the fundamentals he's been taught are coming around.